F.B.I. Allowed to Investigate Crash That Killed Zia

By ROBERT PEAR, Special to The New York Times

Published: June 25, 1989

WASHINGTON, June 24—
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has for the first time sent agents to Pakistan to investigate the plane crash that killed the President of Pakistan and the American Ambassador there 10 months ago.

The Bush Administration's decision to send investigators follows two Congressional hearings at which lawmakers strongly criticized the State Department for blocking an F.B.I. investigation last year.

State Department officials now admit that they made a mistake when they decided to bar the F.B.I. from Pakistan. The officials said they had wanted not to do anything that might upset the political stability of Pakistan.

President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, Ambassador Arnold L. Raphel and Brig. Gen. Herbert M. Wassom, the American military attache in Pakistan, died in the crash on Aug. 17, 1988. Sabotage Is Suspected

The Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, Jamsheed K. A. Marker, said in an interview this week, ''I am convinced that the cause of the crash was not any type of mechanical failure or accident, but an act of sabotage.''

Mr. Marker, a highly respected and experienced diplomat, said he thought ''some foreign involvement was a factor in the crash,'' though he acknowledged that he had no proof.

Mr. Marker, who has served as Pakistan's Ambassador to 15 countries, including the Soviet Union, said he was impressed by the views set forth in a recent article by Yossef Bodansky, a Baltimore expert on Soviet military affairs and terrorism. The article appeared in March in Freedom at Issue, a journal published by Freedom House.

In the article and in an interview, Mr. Bodansky said the evidence strongly suggested that General Zia had been assassinated by ''the K.G.B., its agents and proxies,'' primarily the Afghan intelligence service. Pakistan is a base for the Afghan guerrillas and a conduit for the American arms sent to them.

Moscow has denied responsibility. The United States says the Afghan intelligence service has carried out many terrorist bombings in Pakistan, but Washington has not specifically accused Kabul of a role in the crash. Agents Now in Pakistan

Milt Ahlerich, the chief spokesman for the F.B.I., said this week, ''We now have F.B.I. agents in Pakistan, at the invitation of the Pakistani Government, conducting an investigation of the downing of the aircraft.''

Justice Department officials said the 10-month delay made their work much more difficult. Representative Bill McCollum, Republican of Florida, has sent a letter asking the Director of the F.B.I., William S. Sessions, to investigate whether any Federal officials obstructed justice by refusing to allow F.B.I. experts to go to Pakistan last year. The Defense Department sent Air Force technical experts, but American military commanders decided that the F.B.I. was not needed.

Representative William J. Hughes, who has presided over two hearings on the crash, said, ''Something was terribly wrong with the manner in which our Government pursued its role in the investigation of that tragedy.''

Mr. Hughes, a New Jersey Democrat, said the State Department and the Defense Department denied F.B.I. requests to participate in the investigation even though the Government of Pakistan had no objections.

Robert B. Oakley, who is now the American Ambassador to Pakistan, said top Federal officials met at the White House on the day of the crash. But, he said, ''it didn't occur to anyone'' to send criminal investigators to the site. ''That certainly was a mistake on my part,'' Mr. Oakley said. In August 1988 he was on the staff of the National Security Council, supervising Near East and South Asian affairs.

Richard L. Armitage, who was an Assistant Secretary of Defense at the time, said last week that ''we were wrong'' not to send F.B.I. agents to Pakistan immediately after the crash. Mr. Armitage said the overwhelming concern of American officials was the stability of Pakistan and the security of the subcontinent.

A Pakistani board concluded that the most probable cause of the crash was ''a criminal act or sabotage.''